Critical discourse analysis, topoi and mystification: disability policy documents from a Norwegian NGO

Abstract

In disability studies, social and medical explanatory models are seen as being conflicting or mutually exclusive, and as mystifying respectively bodily impairment and the agency of social and environmental factors. This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to discuss the relationship between such models in policy documents produced by The Norwegian Federation of Organizations of Disabled People (FFO). Analysis of key topoi in the policy documents shows that they display elements of both social and medical discourse, and that the consequences of medically defined impairments are used as justifications for policy interventions in a framework of social justice. While a strict version of the social model is adopted in general programmatic documents, arguments about specific policy fields conceptualize disability as a property of individuals — traditionally, a medical model framing. Analysis of topoi is shown to be a useful tool when CDA is applied to policy texts.